Yesterday, the party had announced 70 candidates, including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and state party chief Jitu Vaghani. While the Congress has released a list of 77 names, it is expected to come out with another list on Monday. The counting of votes will take place on December 18. Polling in the hilly state was held on November 9.

The saffron party has already declared its two lists of candidates for the first phase, fielding 106 candidates so far. The first phase will cover 89 constituencies in 19 districts, and the second phase 93 seats in 14 districts. "In the coming days, we will try to implement what we discussed", he said.

While the PAAS, which is driving a hard bargain with the grand old party given its hold on the numerically strong community, has demanded almost 20 seats from the Congress quota, the Other Backward Classes (OBC) group, led by Alpesh Thakor, has demanded 12.

He said that some people had started a campaign against him that he was not happy with the party high command and had left the Central Election Committee meeting halfway in New Delhi to return to Gujarat.